MINGORA, July 30: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussein Shah has termed the extension of general sales tax to the Provincially-Administered Tribal Areas illegal.

In a notification, the governor termed the collection of GST by Wapda and the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited in the Pata illegal and asked the utilities to act in accordance with constitutional provisions.

Referring to a letter sent by the district nazim of Swat against the levy of GST on electricity and gas bills in the Malakand division, the governor said that the opinion of advocate-general and the secretary law had been obtained and both had agreed that the imposition of GST was unconstitutional under Clause-3 of Article 247 of the Constitution.

A notification No SO-II/19(1)/2317-21 issued from the Governor's Secretariat on Thursday last also reproduced the relevant portion of the Constitution: "(3) No Act of Majlis-i- Shoora (parliament) shall apply to any federally-administered tribal area or to any part thereof, unless the president so directs, and no act of Majlis-i-Shoora (parliament) or a provincial assembly shall apply to a provincially-administered tribal area, or to any part thereof, unless the governor of the province in which the tribal area is statute, with the approval of the president, so directs; and in giving such a direction with respect to any law, the president or, as the case may be, the governor may direct that the law shall, in its application to a tribal area, or to a specified part thereof, have effect subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be specified in the direction".